Who’s hot and who’s not!

Adam Kyriacou

It’s time for our Monday wrap of who has their name in lights and who is making the headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past week.

THEY’RE ON FIRE

Leinster: Another dazzling and ominous performance from the Irish heavyweights as Leo Cullen’s outfit made it successive win number 11 this season in all competitions. Their form in the PRO14 and Champions Cup has been outstanding and they once again made light work of Northampton Saints, this time at the Aviva Stadium in a 50-21 victory. Garry Ringrose starred with three tries but there were many more who impressed, such as number eight Caelan Doris and young fly-half Ciaran Frawley, who displayed plenty of promise coming off the bench.

John Cooney and Ulster: Speaking of form players and there’s few matching Ulster scrum-half Cooney at the moment. Once again he was at the forefront of a strong team showing as Ulster made it four wins out of four in the pool stage, which puts them in an excellent place in this competition going into the new year. Cooney scored two tries in a 19-point haul as Ulster prevailed 34-10 at the Twickenham Stoop, with the scrum-half sending yet another message to Ireland head coach Andy Farrell that he simply cannot be ignored for Six Nations 2020.

Exeter Chiefs’ week: It’s been some week for the Devon outfit as they backed up news that director of rugby Rob Baxter, as well as head coach Ali Hepher, forwards coach Rob Hunter and skills coach Ricky Pellow, have all recommitted until 2023. There’s always been a sense of harmony amongst the Chiefs coaches with Baxter at the top of the tree, brilliantly overseeing their rise up the European game, and they celebrated the news with a fourth straight Champions Cup win, beating Sale 35-10 to move 10 points clear at the summit ahead of Glasgow. Europe’s top club competition has been their Achilles heel in recent years but could 2020 finally be their year?

Doddie Weir: The former Scotland and British & Irish Lions second-row won the Helen Rollason Award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show on Sunday. The 49-year-old, who suffers with motor neurone disease, launched his charity My Name’5 Doddie Foundation in 2017, which seeks to aid research into the disease. On Sunday, Weir said was “honoured and humbled” to pick up an award that is richly deserved, with the incredible man such an inspiration in his fight and how he continues to face it head on while raising money and awareness.

New Zealand double at Cape Town Sevens: Congratulations to New Zealand’s Women’s and Men’s sides as they were crowned champions of the Cape Town Sevens thanks to respective wins over Australia and South Africa. The women prevailed 17-7 in their fixture to remain top of their tournament standings after three rounds this series while the men came from behind to pip the Blitzboks 7-5 in a close-fought final. New Zealand lost last week’s final in Dubai 15-0 to the same opposition, which adds further pride to this win that silenced the crowd.

COLD AS ICE

Harlequins: The writing looked on the wall on Thursday when Harlequins announced a squad missing the likes of Tom Lawday, Chris Robshaw, Joe Marler, Gabriel Ibitoye, Marcus Smith and Danny Care. They were labelled ‘not considered’ while a long injury list that included Mike Brown, Jack Clifford, Nathan Earle, Ben Tapuai, Joe Marchant and Michele Campagnaro meant it was a depleted side that faced Ulster. It showed as Quins lost 34-10 at home and it felt like they didn’t give their last chance at keeping their qualification hopes alive a meaningful shot. When teams do this it is always hard to watch but, with Premiership survival at stake, can you blame them?

Alleged comment at Jamie George: It came as no surprise that European Professional Club Rugby confirmed they would be investigating the incident that took place in the Saracens versus Munster clash. It’s alleged that Saracens hooker Jamie George was verbally abused by a Munster medic, which ultimately sparked a mass brawl at Allianz Park. There is no place for said abuse in the game and we wait to see what comes of the investigation from EPCR, who revealed in a statement on Sunday: “Information will now be sought from the match officials and from both clubs and EPCR will be making no further comment until the investigation has been completed.”

Gloucester’s concentration: Leading 24-13 with just three minutes to play, it seemed inconceivable that the Cherry and Whites would finish on the losing side at the Sportsground. But that’s what happened on Saturday as Gloucester found themselves on the receiving end of an amazing Connacht fightback. Tries from Shane Delahunt and Robin Copeland, both converted by Conor Fitzgerald, saw the Irishmen to a win in a result that keeps their slim qualification hopes alive. For Gloucester, they missed the chance to stay in touch with leaders Toulouse.

Wales Sevens: A disappointing start to the World Rugby Sevens Series got worse for Wales this past weekend as they finished in 16th position, otherwise known as dead last in Cape Town. Losing their 15th place play-off to Japan ended another dismal few days for Wales, this coming after finishing 15th in Dubai in the opening round. This most recent 19-15 loss in South Africa leaves the Welsh joint last in the standings with Japan on just three points from the first two tournaments, with plenty of room for improvement for Darren Edwards’ strugglers.

Matt Fagerson: There have been more serious and malicious incidents which have led to red cards, but this is perhaps the most costly. At the time, the Glasgow number eight’s forearm to the throat of La Rochelle’s Dany Priso had not been picked up by the match officials and the Scottish outfit duly went on to touch down for what they thought was the winning try. The game had reached the final two minutes when Scott Cummings crossed the whitewash to seemingly level the scores and, with a conversion to come, Dave Rennie’s men were on course for a priceless win, but the TMO alerted referee Wayne Barnes to the earlier incident and the score was correctly ruled out. It left the Scottish side desolate and may well cost them a place in the Champions Cup quarter-finals.

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Champions Cup